Standoff ends peacefully in Mexico, two men charged

MEXICO, Maine — An hour-and-a-half-long standoff ended peacefully in Mexico late Tuesday night after police talked two men out of the stranger’s house they were holed up in.

Troy Blanchard, 23, of Mexico, was charged with violating bail conditions, criminal trespassing and terrorizing. His friend, Damen Korhonen, 21, of Canton, was charged with criminal trespassing and terrorizing. Korhonen was taken to Oxford County Jail. Blanchard, who threatened suicide, was taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston.

The incident started shortly before 9 p.m. when Mexico police were called to Brown Street by someone who said Blanchard was violating his bail conditions. Mexico Police Chief James Theriault said Blanchard was outside 20 Brown St., where he was drinking and causing a commotion. When the Mexico officer arrived, Theriault said, Blanchard became belligerent.

“Mr. Blanchard was in the middle of the road, hollering, swearing at him and then telling him he wasn’t going back to jail. He had his hands behind his back and it was a kind of threatening manner to the officer,” Theriault said. “Then he turned around and started running.”

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Blanchard and Korhonen ran to a neighboring house and went inside. Theriault said the door was unlocked and men didn’t know the home’s three occupants.

The occupants, all adults, were eventually able to leave the home, but Blanchard and Korhonen refused, Theriault said.

Police from Rumford, Oxford County, Dixfield and the state, including the State Police Tactical Team, responded to the home. At one point, police shut down Route 17, also known as Roxbury Road, starting at the corner of Harlow Hill Road, to keep people away from the scene. About an hour-and-a-half after the standoff started, the two men agreed to leave the home.